Salamat po, Tatang! PH AGRI BIDS FAREWELL TO A FRIEND, SUPPORTER

On the eve of Christmas 2016, I joined in a table representatives of the biggest supermarkets in the country, including food processors and outlets, to ask for their help on behalf of the Onion farmers of Luzon.

With us in the long table in the posh Manila Golf Club arranged by former Cong. Martin Romualdez were farmers from Nueva Ecija who were crying because prices of Onion were down and the local farmers could not sell their harvest.

My appeal to the Supermarket owners was to accomodate the local Onion to save the farmers from losses.

One of the first to respond was the representative of SM Supermarkets who said they were ready to help.

Of course, SM founder Henry Sy or his daughter, Tessie, were not present during the meeting but I interpreted the immediate response from the SM official as a manifestation of a guiding policy for SM to help Filipino farmers.

Since that day, the Department of Agriculture under President Rody Duterte has partnered with SM and the SM Foundation in many of our programs.

In our nationwide Easy Access Credit Program being implemented aggressively now, the SM Foundation through the Banco de Oro conducts the financial literacy training for farmers and fishermen.

The support for Filipino farmers, I was told, was prescribed by Henry Sy, himself, the poor boy who rose to become one of the richest men in the world through hardwork and perseverance.

I did not have the good fortune of meeting Tatang, as he was called by people close to him and those whose lives he touched, but I share the sense of loss and the sadness of the stakeholders of Philippine Agriculture.

From the DA family, thank you Tatang Henry.